connecting*the*dots

Artist: The Coup
Song: Heven Tonite

==========

[Chorus]
Preacher man wanna save my soul
Don’t nobody wanna save my life
People we done lost control
Let’s make heaven tonite
Preacher man wanna save my soul
Don’t nobody wanna save my life
People we done lost control
Let’s make heaven tonite

Now as I sleep may the oxygen inflate my lungs
May my arteries and heart oscillate as one
If police come may I awake escape and run
In the morning may I have the sake to scrape the funds
And if I take the plunge
May it be said that I wasn’t afraid to shake my tongue
Show the state was scum
Makin’ sure that the callin’ bell of fate was rung
Cuz if they could the would
And probly tried to
Rape the sun
Someone said that this is just my body
Wait for the Afterpary
Where ain’t no shut-off note
And every wallet there is knotty
Feet are on the asphalt
Dick in the dirt
This system take vickin’ to work
Listen alert
Check out the introvert
In the corner with the rip in her skirt
Stomach pains so she grippin’ her shirt
Ain’t never had dinner
So she know she ain’t gettin’ dessert
Don’t try to tell me it’s her mission to hurt
I got faith in the people and they power to fight
We gon make the struggle blossom
Like a flower to light
I know that we could take power tonight
Make ‘em cower from might
And get emergency clearance from the tower for flight
I ain’t sittin in your pews less you helpin’ me resist and refuse
Show me a list of your views
If you really love me
Help me tear this muthafucka up
Consider this my tithe for the offer cup

[Chorus]

I used to think about infinity
And how my memory is finna be
Invisibly slim in that vicinity
And though the stars are magnificent
Whisky and the midnight sky can make you feel insignificant
The revolution in this tune and verse
Is a bid for my love to touch the universe
Strugglin’ over wages and funds
Let the movement get contagious and run
Through the end when it’s gauges and guns
And if we win in the ages to come
We’ll have a chapter where the history pages are from
They won’t never know our name or face
But feel our soul in free food they taste
Feel our passion when they heat they house
When they got power on the streets
And the police don’t beat ‘em about
Let’s make health care centers on every block
Let’s give everybody homes and a garden plot
Let’s give all the schools books
Ten kids a class
And give ‘em truth for their pencils and pads
Retail clerk - "love ballads" where you place this song
Let’s make heaven right here
Just in case they wrong

[Chorus]

Ruby Sinreich of lotusmedia reports on a successful Second Life war protest yesterday.

A bit too geeky for my tastes, but hey, the more the merrier!

flickr tag: j27sl

UPDATE: Another first person account of the event from Kevin Makice.

Full set of protest shots…

(view the movie)

Synopsis:
In this symbolism-filled short, the reasons for war are told through a young boy and old man. Beware your benefactors. And benefactors beware.

The above photo is of a 3′ x 3′ charcoal or rubber marking, found about 30 feet from the steps of the Capitol in Washington D.C. It was one of about five in the area, with the rest of the bunch all smaller and no more menacing than this particular marking.

I took the picture around 2pm, as my brother and I participated in and covered the anti-war protest.

Now, a number of conservative blogs — with large threads of clueless readers — are referring to this benign event as protesters vandalize Capitol building! In the posts, there are references of “spray paint” as the protester’s media of choice “to spray their dissent all over the steps of the U.S. Capitol building.”

Take a look at the picture above — it looks like someone busted out a rubber heel of a bar stool and rubbed the mark to fruition.

In any event, for the two hours we spent on the steps of the Capitol, as far as I can report, nothing worthwhile regarding violence or destruction occurred. At least nothing to dent the taxpayer’s wallet.

I can report, however, that there were some awkward, interesting, funny and stunning expressions of free speech just a few feet away from the steps of the Capitol:

The Soldier’s Wife

Man, this scene was rough.

This poor girl — she looked no older than 19 — just stood in place for an hour while completely releasing her frustrations regarding her husband’s deployment to Iraq.

It was great to see the wife of a soldier at the steps of the Capitol, releasing her pent up anger and frustrations, but man… I actually felt for the fuzz. When she finally left, after an hour of non-stop venting, the cops sort of looked at one another, took a deep breath, and stood at attention once again.

It’s too bad she can’t get 5 minutes on the floor of Congress — speaking directly to the people who can actually put an end to this madness — instead of spending an hour shouting into the wind directly outside.

To The Capitol! (Where’s The Capitol, Dude)

While the soldier’s wife vented, a huge group of punk rock kids walked over the grassy knoll to the right of the steps, chanting different things at different times — though I have to say the funniest was, “To the Capitol! To the Capitol! (followed by the guy in the lead with “Dude, where’s the Capitol?)”

We were standing right in front of it.

Various members of the group attempted to look menacing, but it was obvious that they were a bunch of students — a remnant of the 60’s radical organization, the SDS — who seemed to be looking for something to do on the fly.

They might have been the party guilty of tagging the pavement earlier in the afternoon (again, I don’t know for sure, but it seemed to fit their vibe), but by no means were they violent or radical.

The above picture isn’t showing a guy with a bullhorn working a crowd into a fist-raising frenzy; the leader of the pack simply asked the kids to raise fists if they wanted to join the “normal protesters in the march” or, and I quote, “just go do other stuff.”

They decided to join the marchers.

Dance, Dance, Revolution

This girl had me cracking up.

As the SDS broke off to meet up with the “normal” protesters, she moved directly in front of the officers guarding the steps and before you could say, “Michael Jackson,” she had already started to bust a move.

That was funny by itself — the bandanna covered revolutionist dancing her ass off — but as she continued to gyrate, she started a one-way conversation with the officers in front of her:

Come on, dance! Dance! It’s good for you! Dance! I see you smiling, come on, why can’t you dance?!…

That went on for at least 20 minutes. Somewhere in the midst of her bopping and prodding, someone screamed, “Dance! Dance! Revolution!” and as if on cue, she emulated the dance moves on the floor interface of the arcade game with the same name.

Too damn funny.

Tri-be: Performance Art

Identical triplets from tri-be performed all around Washington D.C. Each square inch of red cloth represented a specific number of casualties in the War on Terror.

• The businesswoman represents the victims of 9/11
• The soldier represents the fallen US service men and women
• The Muslim woman represents the fallen Iraqis and Afghani’s

From the silent execution of the performance to the details of the wardrobe to the absolutely compelling subtext of identical triplets as the participants, I was moved to my core.

Check out tri-be for yourself.

So Did The Protest Make The Slightest Dent In Policy?

I’m not sure if anti-war protests these days have the same teeth that they did back in the 60’s and 70’s. Quite honestly, law enforcement on the scene seemed pretty laid back, almost as if they were babysitting for the afternoon.

I’m not advocating chaos or violence as a vehicle for change, either.

On this day, the crowd was already diversified via organizational groups and each seemed to be focused more than a few degrees away from the next — one would be for the impeachment of Bush, the next for the liberation of Palestine, etc. Without a focused and consistent message — and a organized, regimented march — the message itself became diluted. So instead of delivering a powerful message through the action of tens of thousands of coordinated Americans, protesters, as a whole, opened themselves up to be reduced to “anarchists” and pegged as “anti-American.”

But there is a flip-side to such a perspective.

The internet in 2007 allows like-minded people to not only connect with one another, but to extend discourse beyond letters, meetings and protests — as anti-war activists were limited to 40 years ago.

These permanent hooks of discourse now live in the ether of the web, ripe for furthering conversations and introducing new realities to millions of Americans and global citizens each day.

Four years into the Iraq war, the representative arm of our government has heard the voice of the American public loud and clear and is beginning to at least challenge the administration’s policy. How long, and how many protests, did it take for a similar foothold to take place in the anti-Vietnam war era?

Much more than four years and a protest counter-culture needed to become established.

For numerous reasons, modern day American anti-war protests are an immature brand of past struggles — no centralized and respected leadership; no coordinated approach to physical movement; no single, simple message to sell to the other side — but the unpaved, decentralized streets of the internet just might be the flip to the script that makes the difference in the long-run.

For all our sakes, let’s hope that’s the case.

How’s the above shot for serendipity?

Andy and I rolled into DC at 11am this morning — six hours after packing into one of two buses from downtown Greensboro. We’ve spend the last few hours walking through the crowd taking shots — Andy with his HD camera, while I’m capturing snapshots of the vibe with my old reliable Sony DCS-S85.

I’ll post more tonight and tomorrow.

Peace.

Amen, brother.

From Wooster Collective:

Yesterday, Nico woke up in his flat in Split Croatia. On his closet door was a map created by his girlfriend, Andrea. The map showed different places for Nico to look as his took his usual route from his apartment to the academy where he studies.

What Nico found was an elaborate love poem done on the streets of Split by Andrea. She had put up stencils, paint, aerosol, collage wheat pastes etc. with last piece reading…. “i love you”.

Simply beautiful.

Chuck Hagel may be late to the table on his position against the Iraq war, but he’s damn sure speaking from his soul and showing true leadership.

I have to admit, I was pretty cynical about his dissent in 2005 regarding American’s rights to openly criticize both the war and this president. Who knows, his tenor could still be a political ploy… but I’m leaning towards the position of highly doubting it.

Rock on, sir.

Mr. Sun:

Joe - We are in the umpteenth chapter of Jerry’s historical look at the Wray case. Along the way, we’ve made day trips to November 3, 1979 and had a very smelly sleepover in the News & Record’s dirty laundry room. Every week, people are pouring over this historical detail. You have even been excerpting it. As usual, there is all this amazing interest and energy around placing blame and confirming preconceived notions about race in Greensboro. You see identity group politics. I see other things. The river rolls on. When it comes to discussing the TRC report, or anything that requires people to let go of their judgments and take a leap of faith together, the interest stops dead cold. All of the sudden, it’s a “waste of time,” “part of the past,” “a crock,” — too “backwards looking.” Clearly, it’s not the direction that’s the problem. It’s the focus. People are loving the look backwards as long as what they see is familiar. I don’t know who is right or wrong in the Wray case. I don’t even understand the question. I would just like to see people on both sides of the divide divert even a fraction of the energy they currently devote to meticulously footnoting their own particular shade of racial bitterness. This feels like a late-career Tyson fight to me — all this competitive hype, but when it’s all over there is no clear winner and it all feels like a setup for the rematch which you know is coming and you’ll have to pay for it.

dragonflysky took the shot and flickr’s patented interestingness algorithm decided that her photo is the most interesting photo tagged with “Greensboro” out of more than 9,000 images.